Actor Profile: Colin Farrell
Seldom does a new actor come across that impresses me. I'm a bit old school when it comes to actors and like mine to have been in the biz a while before I go heaping critical acclaim on them. The only other male actor that springs to mind that has impressed me recently is Scott Carne and although he hasn't scored a lead yet, his support is brilliant. Just does the job, no more, no less, but always well. So along comes a straight-to-video American Outlaws and here he is, practically nobody, yet leading away like a pro. Coincidentally Scott Carne played support to him in it. Top stuff. 2003 is set to be his biggest year yet.
Colin James Farrell was born in Dublin at age 0, lol. I've always wanted to say that. Anyway, 31st of March 1976 was the first time he saw the light of day, grew up, went to drama school but dropped out. His debut on any screen was in Ballykissangel, I've never watched it but apparantly its quite popular over here. Probably.
Now there's this film you may have seen on the shelves in your local, came out around the same time Saving Ryan's Privates and Thin Red Line came out - the beginning of the great war glut I like to call it. It was called Tigerland and I've been dismissing it as "yet another", but since finding out that this is Colin's big screen debut and the fact he also won an award for best actor (Boston Society of Film Critics) in it is making me think differently now.
Having said that he also starred along side Kevin Spacey in An Ordinary Decent Ciminal which was just awful. Great story, yes, but a complete rip-off of the original flick whose name I can't remember right now. I'll get it eventually.
Colin's career seems to keep going from strength to strength with this list under his belt already:
 | The War Zone (1999) |
| Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000) |
| Tigerland (2000) |
| American Outlaws (2001) |
| Hart's War (2002) - earned $US2.5M |
| Minority Report (2002) - earned $US2.5M |
| Phone Booth (2002) |
| The Recruit (2003) - earned $US5M |
| Daredevil (2003) |
| Veronica Guerin (2003) |
| S.W.A.T. (2003) - earned $US8M |
| Intermission (2003) |
| Alexander (2003) |
Note the earnings on some of those flicks, not bad for someone whose only been kicking around in film since '99. Also note he's grabbing roles from left and right field so he's avoiding getting typecast early on, kudos. So anyway, there you go for a bit of a brief on someone who I think is going to continue to grab the spotlight. He's no Bruce Willis, but he's A-list nonetheless. Go Bruce!
BH